Dear IGN, why dont you guys have different classes for game of the year? I feel like it is unfair to put games like Journey VS Halo 4 or Gone Home VS GTA 5. Its unfair to both. It should be a AAA GOTY and a Arcade/PSN/Indi GOTY. - 3 years ago

I have a big problem when it comes to handing out the almighty tittle of Game of the Year. To me that tittle says a lot about a game. It should sum up the very best that the year had to offer, and while other people may agree or disagree with this article I am just hoping to stir up the pot and see if I am the only one who feels this way.

I don’t get it, why does IGN keeps pinning AAA vs Indie/arcade/psn tittles. Why don’t they have different categories for GOTY? There should be an AAA GOTY and Indy/Arcade GOTY but never in a million year should a game like Journey beat out some of the other amazing AAA games of 2012. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE journey it’s one of my favorite games of this generation but I think that it is unfair to pit it directly vs. these other big budget games. The same goes for AAA games that take years and millions of dollars to create. Being beat by a 2 hour game undermines all the hard work that big budget studios put out. I am a huge fan of indie and arcade games as well. I will like to say I play them more than I do AAA games but I just feel it’s unfair for both to pin them against each other. I feel that IGN and their staff are too big of fans of small tittles and want to push them out there and its admirable, but there are different ways to do that and handing out a tittle like game of the year to a 2hr experience seems too much. I will cry if a game like Gone Home (a pc only game only god knows why) beats out GTA 5, The Last of Us or even Bioshock Infinite. I think the same goes for 3DS titles. Not to say they are not worthy, I am not saying that at all, but they need to be in a category of their own; handheld/mobile GOTY perhaps? I think that IGN needs to restructure their GOTY and separate them instead of handing out one award that covers the whole genre of gaming and I know they have sub-categories I’ve seen them, but putting that big tittle of game of the year needs to go to the biggest game of the year that appeals to all the masses, that is far ahead of its competition in visuals, storytelling, mechanics, and overall value.

I get that small tittles deliver amazing experiences that some AAA games just don’t deliver but games aren't just "experiences" they are games after all! It’s not just the journey that matters (no pun intended) It should be the ride, the road and everything in between. And while I don’t deny the amazing experience that Journey was, it deserves all its merits and accolades but is that the best of the best of 2012? In my opinion no, it wasn’t and in the end there is no right answer we all have different tastes, my point is that they shouldn’t go head to head vs. each other they should have their own places. It’s just not fair.

So my burning question is shouldn't game play, story and experience should all be accounted for when considering a game for GOTY? Shouldn't quality, visuals, mechanics, lasing appeal and value all should be necessary in order to win? Now you see my point where it is just not fair.

AAA GOTY- The Last of Us Arcade/Indy GOTY- Thomas Was Alone Mobile/Handheld GOTY- Persona 4 Golden

That’s obviously my picks but that is the way it should be organized, not just one game beats all its like putting the best college team vs the best pro sports team who you think will win?

This was a terrible way to end such a fantastic series. It was almost tragic how bad this was. First of all Dexter is and was a monster. He wasn't a hero, a good person, a good father, a good husband or a good brother. The fact that he left Harrison with Hannah (as sexy as she is she is still a killer) that should let you know how great of a father he is. He deceived everyone and every one that died under his watch was all his fault no one else's, not even the killers. You can argue that Walter White is a better person than Dexter Morgan because if we wanna be technical every death caused by Walter, directly or indirectly, was in some form self defense for himself or his family. In a way it's you or me and my family and hell I can see in a way thru that. But Dexter was a killer. A stone cold killer. Weather he killed good people or bad people and let's be honest to our-self's a lot of innocent people died directly because of Dexter's existence. Now I am not defending Walter White or excusing him, I am just merely pointing out how in some ways he is a better horrible killer than Dexter is and yet it seems Walter Whites ending is harsher on him. Dexter needed to die in a very hard way, death penalty in my opinion and open to the world to see, to his co-workers who loved him, admired him for what an amazing technician he was, to captain Mathews as big of a scum bag he is he still treated him and Deb like family and I can see Dexter respected him. Batista who put so much emotion into Dexter and who trusted Dexter blindly need to know the truth about what led to Debra killing La Guerta (whom I despised). I didn't mind that Debra died and that she died by Dexter hands or directly because of him but the way it happened up to the final scene was terrible. I mean if Dexter is gonna be the reason she died let's get more graphic. Let her die directly and in front of Dexter not in that crappy way. Everyone deserved to know the truth about Dexter, the monster Harry create then couldn't live to see, the murderer of thousands of humans whether criminals or not and the world needed to see that . And finally Dexter need to see that if anyone fitted the code of Harry to die, it was himself.

How Dexter wasn't a good overall person

We were meant to believe that Dexter was some type of hero a vigilante per say. He was not. He was a psychopath, a calculating, cold blooded, technical and ruthless killer. He was taught how to play the system and everything about Dexter's life was about him killing nothing more. From the doughnuts to charming smile, everything he did with his live revolved around making his life easier for him to kill.The job he took was to make his life easier to kill. Rita and the kids were a cover for him to kill. That's what he lived for. The only things that were real in Dexter;s life were Debra, Harrison and towards the end Hannah. These were the only things he cared about. Rita? He grew close to Rita but would've never loved her because he could never tell her the truth and that would've drove a wedge between them impossible to ignore. He escaped during the night to put her life in danger to do what he did. Can we argue that Dexter was a sick person? Absolutely without a doubt, but once Harry saw what he created even he couldn't live with himself. He saw the monster in Dexter I wonder why couldn't the writers.

People need to know he was a killer

How many lives did Dexter ruined? Doakes for once. Hate him or love him Doakes was a good cop with a terrible attitude and while his past was murky he never deserved to die. La Guerta falls into the same boat and while we can use the Walter White scape route here (He did it to save his own skin) again this only proved that Dexter wasn't the good killer we were meant to believe he was. Now before we all get defensive he didn't technically murdered either one, but what did you think was eventually going to happen? Whats was he going to do with Doakes when he had him imprisoned? What was he prepared to do with LaGuerta? There was no way out he was going to kill them, remember IT IS WHAT HE DOES. Without Lila or Debra there was no other alternative for these two situations. Oh and if you are naive to think that well framing Doakes to be the Bay Harbor Butcher and dying in the electric chair was the better alternative than wow what world do we live in. The point is Dexter got away with ruining innocent peoples lives just to cover up his own and at the end people needed to see behind the veil the terrible monster that he was. There was no human in Dexter and towards the end of the series trying to give a monster human traits is what eventually destroyed what other wise 4 seasons had built. Which leads me to my final point;

Monsters aren't human, this is where Dexter went wrong

Dexter started out as a troubled psychopath and Harry had no idea what to do. He created the monster that was Dexter gave him the code, not out of morality but for defense. Remember what was the first rule? DON'T GET CAUGHT. It wasn't don't kill innocent people, that came after. The code was not created to help Dexter be a "better human being" or "to do the right thing" both Vogel and Harry knew that Dexter wasn't human anymore and that killing was only thing we was going to do. But also that killing would destroy any piece of humanity left in him. Disagree? Well then why did Harry kill himself? Why couldn't Harry live with what he had created if the code was created to help Dexter be a better person or excuse the murders? I mean he was taking out the trash and dealing out justice right? Wrong. Harry knew that Dexter was a monster that needed to be put down, he just couldn't bring himself up to do it,he tried to find a way around it and instead created a bad situation worse and since he couldn't bring himself up to kill Dexter, took his own life for this was all his fault. He believed Dexter becoming who he is was his fault, letting Dexter's mom died was his fault and all of this blame was on Harry's shoulders.

The first four seasons we saw Dexter evolve. Not into a better human being, into a better killer but also into a flawed killer. This was a perfect time to start to prepare the end of Dexter. Someone close to Dexter should've known that he was partially responsible for Ritas death and should have reminded him constantly but rarely did I ever saw Dexter coming back to that moment. This was a perfect opportunity for Dexter's world to start crumbling underneath him but what did the writers do? They tried to make him more human. More sympathetic. Seriously, "lets make a cold blooded killer more sympathetic because not killing someone when he had the chance cost him his wife that should teach him to be more human'. Tell me if that sounds right? Everything that happened after Trinity was the writer trying to make Dexter into some type of hero we should all look up to. Trying to help Prado become a organized killer. Trying to help a total stranger in Lumin get revenge and finally falling in love with Hannah, a dangerous killer. And let me not even bring up the Doomsday series because of how terrible that season was, lets pretend how none of that happen deal? Ohh by the way he did all of this without ever getting caught or anyone with the exception of Debra finding out the truth. Give me a break! All the close calls, Debra ratting him out but Dexter magically saving the day, they all became stale and unbelievable. Every time it was like Dexter was invulnerable to getting caught like he had some sort of divine protection that he always new where that person was, or magically knew the hidden places where people hid stuff. I get it he was good at his job, but Dexter took it to an idiotic level. Most of the time I was more like "really how in the world he knew that was there" than impressed by his detective skills. Ohh and no one ever bother to even ask why are you still just "the blood guy" when he read crime scenes better than anyone blood or no blood. In the end the writers trying to morph Dexter from everyday psychopath to good husband and father was the reason it ended on such a low note in my mind and dropped Dexter from a 9/10 overall in the series to a possible 6/10. What a shame.

PS: Anyone calling this a "ok" ending or satisfactory, it's your opinion I get that, but this was a shame what a horrible justice Showtime did to to such a wonderful series. I say Showtime because its almost a given that we will see another Dexter series or something to do with Dexter instead of telling a good story, reap the benefits and move on to the next, no this is the "Call of Duty" syndrome, lets squeeze out until the last cent even if it means destroying something so great.